Month: December 2017
🎥 Community Connection: Randy Sauer & Mike Morley
Randy Sauer
Children’s Singer/Songwriter
&
Mike Morley
Communications Director, Midwest Energy Inc.
FHSU Student Recognition Programs for 2018 begin in Denver on Jan. 21
FHSU University Relations
High school students in Colorado will be first in line in 2018 to be recognized for scholarships to Fort Hays State University when the annual series of Student Recognition Programs kicks off at 2 p.m. Sunday, Mountain time, Jan. 21, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel, 3801 Quebec St.
A highlight at each event is the recognition of students who have already been awarded scholarships to FHSU for the next academic year, but the SRP mission is to recognize all students interested in college – and their friends and families – and provide them with the opportunity to meet faculty and staff from the university. The public is welcome to attend.
Students and families in Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska can sign up now to attend programs in their areas.
High school juniors, seniors and transfer students in Kansas, Nebraska and Colorado have been invited to Student Recognition Programs in their areas. The programs are held in communities across Kansas, in southern Nebraska and in Denver to accommodate area students and their parents or guardians and families.
Students are welcome to attend any SRP program but must RSVP by calling 785-628-5673 or by signing up online through the RSVP link at www.fhsu.edu/admissions/srp/.
Receptions hosted in each locale by the Office of Admissions include dessert or pizza buffets. Students and their friends and families have the opportunity to mingle with FHSU faculty, staff and administrators before and after the scholarship presentations.
Many high school seniors and transfer students will receive certificates for a variety of scholarships awarded to them by FHSU.
Scholarships to be awarded at the SRPs include the $3,500 Presidential Award of Distinction, the $2,000 University Scholar Award, the $1,500 Hays City Scholar Award, and the $1,000 Traditions Scholar Award. All are awarded only to incoming freshmen enrolling in college for the first time, but each is renewable provided students maintain the minimum required academic standing.
A renewable $1,500 scholarship is available for transfer students, and a $1,000 non-renewable transfer scholarship is also available.
Other one-time awards recognized at the SRPs are the $900 or $500 Academic Opportunity Awards, given to scholars by individual academic departments.
Each SRP event also features three scholarship drawings – a $400 FHSU Student Recognition Program Scholarship, a $600 textbook scholarship and another for a laptop computer. Four $400 SRP scholarships are awarded at the reception in Hays.
The SRP schedule includes the general area that is the core area served at each program site.
Denver, 2 p.m. Mountain time Sunday, Jan. 21, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel, 3801 Quebec St. Dessert will be served. The Denver SRP serves students from all Colorado counties except for Bent, Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Kit Carson and Prowers counties, which are served by SRP programs in Colby and Garden City.
Wichita, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, at the Marriott, 9100 Corporate Hills Drive. Dessert will be served. The Wichita SRP serves students from 19 south-central and southeast Kansas counties: Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Reno, Sedgwick, Sumner, Wilson and Woodson.
Salina, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 28, at the Webster Conference Center, 2601 N. Ohio. Pizza will be served. Students from eight counties are invited to Salina: Chase, Clay, Dickinson, Ellsworth, Marion, McPherson, Ottawa and Saline.
Great Bend, 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 5, at Great Bend High School, 19th and Morton. Pizza will be served. Students invited to the Great Bend SRP are from Barton, Pawnee, Pratt, Rice, Russell and Stafford counties and from the cities of Bison and Otis in Rush County.
Colby, 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 8, at Colby High School, 1890 S. Franklin. Pizza will be served. Students from nine Kansas counties, two Colorado counties and four Nebraska counties are invited to the Colby SRP: Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Logan, Rawlins, Sheridan, Sherman, Thomas and Wallace in Kansas; Cheyenne and Kit Carson in Colorado; and Chase, Dundy, Hayes and Hitchcock counties in Nebraska.
Overland Park, 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, at the Doubletree Hotel, 10100 College Blvd. Dessert will be served. The Overland Park SRP serves students from 12 eastern Kansas counties: Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Doniphan, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Miami and Wyandotte.
Topeka, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 11, at the Ramada Inn, 420 SE Sixth St. Dessert will be served. Topeka serves students from 14 counties: Brown, Coffey, Geary, Jackson, Jefferson, Lyon, Marshall, Morris, Nemaha, Osage, Pottawatomie, Riley, Shawnee and Wabaunsee.
Beloit, 6:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 12, at Beloit High School, 1711 Walnut. Pizza will be served. The Beloit SRP is for students from the Kansas counties of Cloud, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Republic and Washington and from the cities of Osborne and Downs in Osborne County. Students from the Nebraska counties of Clay, Jefferson, Nuckolls and Thayer are also invited.
Kearney, Neb., 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18, at the Holiday Inn, 110 S. Second Ave. Pizza will be served. Students from 14 Nebraska counties are invited to the Kearney SRP: Adams, Buffalo, Dawson, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Gosper, Hall, Harlan, Kearney, Lincoln, Phelps, Red Willow and Webster.
Hays, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 18, in the Fort Hays Ballroom of FHSU’s Memorial Union, 700 College Drive. Dessert will be served. The Hays SRP serves students from seven counties: Ellis, Graham, Norton, Phillips, Rooks, Smith and Trego counties and from the cities of La Crosse in Rush County, Natoma in Osborne County, and Ransom in Ness County.
Garden City, 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at Garden City High School, 2720 Buffalo Way. Dessert will be served. Garden City serves students from 13 southwest Kansas counties and four southeast Colorado counties: Finney, Grant, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Kearny, Lane, Morton, Scott, Seward, Stanton, Stevens and Wichita in Kansas; and Baca, Bent, Kiowa and Prowers counties in Colorado.
Dodge City, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at Dodge City High School, 2201 W. Ross Road. Pizza will be served. The Dodge City SRP serves eight counties – Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Ford, Gray, Hodgeman, Kiowa and Meade – and Ness City in Ness County.
Holiday changes refuse/recycling collections
CITY OF HAYS
Due to the observance of the Christmas holiday, Monday, December 25th, and Tuesday, December 26th, refuse/recycling route collection schedules will be altered as follows:
Although collections may not occur on your normal day, collections will be completed by the end of the week. Crews anticipate that the collection routes will be as followed:
o Monday, December 25th, and Tuesday, December 26th, refuse and recycling collections will be on Wednesday, December 27th.
o Wednesday, December 27th, and Thursday, December 28th, refuse and recycling collections will be on Thursday, December 28th.
o There are no anticipated changes to Friday, December 29th, collection schedule.
It is anticipated that heavy volumes of refuse/recyclables will be encountered around the holidays. Please be sure to have your refuse/recycling out by 7:00 AM on the specified collection day, and keep in mind the trucks have no set time schedule.
City of Hays customers who may have any questions regarding this notice should contact the Solid Waste Division of the Public Works Department at 785-628-7357.
Kansas ranked #8 best state for pets
By MONIQUE SEITZ-DAVIS
SafeWise
Is your furry friend like a family member? If so, where you live may impact the quality of your pet’s life.
SafeWise analysts created a report on the most pet-friendly states in America and Kansas ranked # 8 best state for pets in 2017.
To determine the best and worst states for pets, SafeWise looked at multiple factors including which states have harsh anti-cruelty laws, number of shelters, veterinarians, and registered breeders, along with the number of pet-friendly restaurants, hotels, and parks.
Here are some other key findings:
- Kansas has 87 shelters and 30 percent are no-kill shelters
- Kansas has 370 pet-friendly hotels
- Kansas has 38 trails that allow pets to frolic freely
See the entire report here.
SafeWise is a home security and safety advice blog.
MADORIN: Winter solstice
I can’t imagine living in early times without scientific knowledge regarding the year’s shortest day and longest night, the winter solstice. Before easy access to candles, kerosene, and electricity, this was a worrisome season. Little besides faith the sun would return comforted the ancients through increasingly long nights.
The word solstice itself comes from the Latin solstitium. Sol meant sun and stitium stoppage. According to the Family Education Network, the winter solstice occurs either December 21 or 22. For several days before the solstices and for several days after, it appears that time stands still. In a world bombarded with more information than it can process, it comforts me to imagine, that for a moment, the sun momentarily stands in place each June and December.
It must have comforted our ancestors also. Anthropologists have found evidence that many early societies developed means to mark equinoxes and solstices. Stonehenge is one well-known example. In North America, some experts theorize Native American medicine wheels peppering our landscape may have served a similar purpose. Though I don’t recommend building a Stonehenge or a medicine wheel in the backyard, much can be said for beginning one’s day before the sun rises and making time to watch its first rays break the horizon.
Kansans have experienced some spectacular sunrises since Thanksgiving. One morning it appeared that fingers of crimson fire tore away the darkness. Other mornings reveal themselves in pastel hues gently probing their way into the eastern sky. Making a point of spending time watching the sun come up and taking note of when it happens puts life in perspective. I find myself hating to sleep in. I don’t want to miss sunrise or the day’s continually shifting shadows.
In the same vein, I’ve found it soothing to note when the sun sets on our western hill. Painters and photographers recognize and celebrate the power a fiery sunset or a rosy orb gradually fading into violet darkness holds over a viewer. Marking evolving shadows dropping into the West connects us to forgotten rhythms.
For those who don’t want to or can’t watch the sun rise and set, computers make it easy to track the earth’s rhythms. Anyone can see sunrise and sunset times on the weather page or by installing the Weather Bug on a computer.
Solstices are a reminding, a remembering of rhythms our hearts know but our minds forgot. They are about belief in rebirth. They are about faith. They are about knowing darkness will descend and lengthen but, given time, light will return.
It is not a coincidence that we choose to celebrate our religious and secular holidays with displays of light during this dark time of year. The beckoning warmth of Christmas lights and electric candles on windowsills reminds humanity that light will overcome dark and days will grow longer. I hope you stopped for a moment and remained still, especially at sunrise and sunset, to mark this year’s winter solstice December 21.
Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.
Cloudy, cold Christmas Day
Christmas Day Mostly cloudy, with a high near 32. East wind 5 to 10 mph increasing to 11 to 16 mph in the afternoon.
Tonight A slight chance of snow between 2am and 5am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 6. Wind chill values as low as -9. Northeast wind around 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
Tuesday Mostly cloudy and cold, with a high near 15. Wind chill values as low as -10. Northeast wind 8 to 14 mph.
Tuesday Night Mostly cloudy, with a low around 4. Wind chill values as low as -7. East northeast wind 5 to 7 mph.
Wednesday Partly sunny, with a high near 26. South southeast wind 6 to 14 mph.
HHS DECA students to host human trafficking awareness week
By LACEY GREGORY
HHS Guidon
According to DoSomething.org, there are nearly 20-30 million people in the world today who fall victim to human trafficking.
Human trafficking is defined as modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor.
Through DECA’s Public Relations Project, the goal is to raise awareness to the fact that human trafficking is rampant and could happen—or is already happening—in our community.
DECA’s project, Break the Chains, is comprised of an awareness week at the high school Jan. 8-12 to inform students of the issue.
A speaker from ICT SOS, an anti-trafficking organization in Wichita, will present on Jan. 8 to inform the student body and staff of the facts and dangers of human trafficking.
As a fundraiser for anti-trafficking organizations, students will be able to purchase a piece of duct tape any time from Jan. 8-11.
These pieces will be used to duct tape principal Martin Straub or police chief Don Scheibler to the gym wall during an assembly on Jan. 12.
Throughout the week, there will be posters hung throughout the school stating statistics and facts about human trafficking. Human trafficking occurs in every country, and DECA’s project aims to raise awareness to this issue.
DECA has created a public service announcement video regarding human trafficking that is available to view on the school’s website.
For an interview or further information, please contact Kaitlyn Schaben or Lisa Schoenberger at their respective emails or phone numbers: [email protected] (785-639-1391) or [email protected] (785-259-5300).
Kansas minister gains fame after gospel hit
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — A minister from Kansas City, Kansas, is soaring to the top of the gospel music charts after a chance encounter at a national worship event with a national gospel performer.
Bishop Cortez Vaughn is the founder and senior pastor of Faith City Church in Kansas City, Kansas. His song “You Deserve It” spent more than 20 weeks topping gospel music charts and caught the attention of gospel icons and choirs worldwide, the Kansas City Star reported.
The song’s popularity grew after Vaughn’s performance of it last year caught the attention of JJ Hairston, a national recording gospel artist. Hairston invited Vaugh to travel to Washington, D.C., to record the song. He and his accompanying choir decided not only to add “You Deserve It” to their upcoming album but to name the album itself after the song.
“I guess he knew he had something,” said Vaugh, who is listed as a “featured” performer on the single.
“You Deserve It” was rewarded earlier this month with a Grammy Award nomination for best gospel performance/song. The song also helped Vaughn land a record deal with Tyscot Records.
“No way I could have predicted this,” said Vaughn, 39. “I’m still in awe.”
Vaughn said he first wrote “You Deserve It” in 2014 during a worship experience at a North Carolina church. Fellow music ministers David Bloom of North Carolina and Demond Reed of Texas helped Vaughn write the song.
Vaughn said he’s working on his own recorded version of “You Deserve It” that will have a different twist to it from the single with Hairston.
Kan. community mourns loss of law enforcement team member
SEDGWICK COUNTY —The Wichita community is mourning the loss of a special member of law enforcement.
On Saturday, Wichita Police Department Mounted Unit suffered the tragic loss of one of their horses.
The horse named, Champ, had a large colon volvulus causing him to suffer from unrelenting pain. After performing diagnostic procedures, it was determined that his GI tract ruptured and humane euthanasia was necessary, according to officer Charley Davidson.
Champ served honorably as a mounted unit horse for six years. He was known for his kind and gentle disposition.
Champ was loved by the community and the mounted unit officers.
Kansas police chase ends with car in river
SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement are investigating a disturbance and looking for a suspect after a car was seen floating in the river.
Just before 1a.m. Sunday, police responded to a disturbance with a weapon call at Pinecrest and Gramer in Wichita, according to office Charley Davidson.
Upon officers arriving to investigate the call a silver sedan was seen leaving. Officers attempted to stop the vehicle when the driver refused to stop and a short police pursuit ensued. Police discontinued the pursuit due to the reckless actions of the driver.
Shortly after the pursuit ended an officer observed the silver sedan in the Arkansas River in the 1700 block of south Greenway.
The vehicle was unoccupied, and any individual(s) in the vehicle were not located. If anyone has any information regarding this case please call 911 or Crime Stoppers at 316.267.2111. The case numbers of the incident are 17C087765; 17C087768.
Virgil Lynn Hamm
Virgil Lynn Hamm, 81, Hays, died Saturday, Dec. 23, 2017, at Via Christi Nursing Home, Hays.
He was born July 23, 1936 in Fort Scott, Kansas. He married Allura (Steely) Hamm on Aug. 15, 1954.
He was employed as an assistant manager at Otasco in Wichita before moving to Hays in 1963. He became the manager/owner of the Hays Otasco store (Coast to Coast, Hamm’s True Value) for almost 50 years. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, and watching the K.C. Royals. He especially loved spending time with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Allura; three daughters, Brenda Epperson and husband Scott, Owasso, Oklahoma, Julia Kuntz and husband Andy, Hays, and Nikki Hamm, Enid, Oklahoma; three grandchildren, Heather Schmitz and Joshua Kuntz, Hays, and Garrett Epperson, Owasso, Oklahoma; two great-grandchildren, Savannah and Elijah Schmitz, Hays.
Visitation and service information to follow.
Sun bears arrive in time for Christmas at Kansas zoo
By MOLLY HADFIELD
Topeka— You might think it would be hard to find a home for two old Sun Bears. When the Topeka Zoo and Conservation Center saw that they were available, it was a perfect fit for an empty habitat. A few days before Christmas, the two Sun Bears named HoHo and Cupcake arrived at their new home at the Topeka Zoo.
Both the male bear HoHo and the female bear Cupcake are 28 years old and are an unrelated breeding pair that have lived together since they were about two years old. Of the two, HoHo has the more extroverted personality and is the more adventurous when it comes to climbing.
HoHo and Cupcake are going to live in the former gorilla habitat at the zoo. “The space will be perfect for the two bears,” said Zoo Director Brendan Wiley. “The staff that work in that space are well accustomed to working with geriatric animals and we are all thrilled to welcome HoHo and Cupcake into our family.”
HoHo and Cupcake will begin a 30 day quarantine period today. The Topeka Zoo will post updates on its social media as the bears get accustomed to their new home. Due to the construction around the Discovering Apes building, it might be a few months before zoo guests are able to see the bears. When the time does come for their public debut, you can be sure that a party will be planned and of course Hostess will be on the guest list.
Sun Bears are the smallest species of bear. They have really long tongues and long claws that they use for foraging. They are native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia.